Drugs

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These days, drugs can be found everywhere, and it may seem like everyone's doing them. Many teens are tempted by the excitement or escape that drugs seem to offer. But learning the facts about drugs can help you see them for what they are and can help you steer clear. Drugs are chemicals or substances that change the way our bodies work. When you put them into your body, drugs find their way into your bloodstream and are transported to parts of your body, such as your brain. In the brain, drugs may intensify or dull your senses, alter your sense of alertness, and sometimes decrease physical pain. A drug may be helpful or harmful.
Stimulants
Amphetamines are stimulants that accelerate functions in the brain and body. They come in pills or tablets. Prescription diet pills also fall into this category of drugs. Their Street Names are speed, uppers, dexies, bennies. Amphetamines are swallowed, inhaled, or injected. Swallowed or snorted, these drugs hit the user with a fast high, making them feel powerful, alert, and energized. Uppers pump up heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure, and they can also cause sweating, shaking, headaches, sleeplessness, and blurred vision. Prolonged use may cause hallucinations and intense paranoia. Amphetamines are psychologically addictive.
Cocaine is a white crystalline powder made from the dried leaves of the coca plant. Crack, named for its crackle when heated, is made from cocaine. Street Names for Cocaine are coke, snow, blow, nose candy, white, big C. Street Names for Crack are freebase, rock. Cocaine is inhaled through the nose or injected. Crack is smoked. Cocaine is a stimulant that rocks the central nervous system, giving users a quick, intense feeling of power and energy. Cocaine also elevates heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and body temperature. Even after one use, cocaine and crack can create both physical and psychological cravings that make it very, very difficult for us...